


Golden Leaves

by junkerin



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Fairy Tale Elements, M/M, Supernatural Reverse Big Bang Challenge, Supernatural Reverse Big Bang Challenge 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-21
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-03-08 12:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3208736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junkerin/pseuds/junkerin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared is an unsucessful artist who never fit into this world. One day in the forest he paints a beautiful tree but the elb who lifes in this tree isn´t happy with the result.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Golden Leaves

Golden leaves

Chapter 1  
Jared woke up to pale morning light and the sound of late September rain. He didn’t like autumn in New York City, where the golden light was muted. Jared knew he needed to get up soon, so he could leave his hotel room before he needed to pay for another day. 

He reached for his pills on the night stand. Antidepressants and anti phobia and some stuff for his stomach. He knew he needed the meds in order to work. In the pale light of his hotel room he could see the cuts and scars along his arms and across his wrist. With some strange kind of melancholy he remembered his troublesome youth when he used to cut and hurt himself. He didn’t want to think of his suicide attempt two years ago shortly after his 21st birthday.

Jared could still feel the cold hate his mother had thrown his way, calling him an abomination and not her child before he cut his wrist in a restroom at a gas station. When he had woken up two days later the doctors had informed him he had been lucky. One or two more minutes and it would have been too late to save him. Jared hadn’t felt lucky. He felt alone and lost and he only managed to survive with the help of his little white pills and his art. The pills were prescribed by his doctor, who called him a chronicle depressive person, but his art showed a different truth about Jared. Like Monet, he was able to paint emotion and moods. Only he didn’t painted lily ponds; his favorite object, model or inspiration was the forest close to his home.

Jared swallowed his pills with a glass of water and then got up. He had an appointment at an art gallery in about two hours.  
\----- -----

Jared took a deep breath, trying to swallow his disappointment. He was a grown man, he couldn’t start to cry because the gallery had refused to meet Jared’s price and had only paid ten percent of what Jared had hoped for. He tried to console himself with the fact that he still sold enough to buy new canvas and paints and make his living in Golden Grove Connecticut. 

Thanks to being so upset Jared missed the mischievous grin the manager of the gallery sent after him. He for his part was more than happy with the deal. True, Jared’s art didn’t sell well in New York, but in his branches in Miami, San Francisco and LA they were nuts about them. He even had spun a tale about the artist to keep Jared hidden and his profit high.  
\---- ----  
Leaving the city always felt good to Jared, even if he was travelling on a Greyhound. After three hours on the bus and two days in the city Jared couldn’t wait to return home.

It had been too late to go to the forest after his return to Golden Grove, but the next morning he was up before sunrise packing his brush and easel as well as his sketch block in a big backpack. He knew the way to the forest by heart. As long as he could remember the forest had always been his shelter. When his mother had screamed at him or beaten him or when a close friend had betrayed their friendship, the big trees always seemed to offer him support and guidance. 

And those feelings of being at home, being at peace were the feelings he wanted to convey with his art. It was sad that nobody but Jared saw this in his pictures. 

It was a clear, golden autumn morning. The sun had just risen above the mountain and was sending golden light into the forest. The forest was huge and Jared chose a seldom used path and then took a route he had never taken before. After walking for the better part of an hour he stumbled into a clearing. In the middle of the clearing was the most beautiful tree he had ever seen. A little creek ran not far from it and closer to the border of the forest, ferns covered the ground. The maple tree was still mostly green and only a few leafs had begun changing to gold. 

“Well, you are a beauty aren’t you?” Jared asked the tree, walking around it and stroking the big trunk. The tree was stunning and Jared couldn’t wait to start painting and sketching the clearing and his tree.  
\---- ----  
Jensen awoke to a presence. He had no idea what it was at first; it felt like something, someone was touching his home, his tree his Baby. Carefully and unseen he emerged from the tree to see a human -- a tall, good-looking man with tilted eyes and shaggy brown hair. He could have been an elf like Jensen but… his aura was dull and dimmed like all humans. 

He was talking to his tree, his Baby, telling her what a beauty she was. Jensen had never seen a human talking to a tree, although he had never been so close to a human before.   
The man sat back against the trunk and opened a sketchbook on his knees. Carefully, Jensen moved closer, wanting to see what this man was doing. He concentrated on his sketch and his hand moved quickly over the paper. Jensen tore his eyes from the man and looked at the paper.   
That was… it looked like…. It was stunning! The man had painted his tree – his Baby - but it was more than that. He had perfectly captured the moment when the sun was warming the trunk and the wind blowing and the leaves were moving and you could still smell the warm summer days. Jensen knew his Baby was a beauty but he had never expected to find a human who could see it too. 

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Chad emerging from his fern.   
“Oh cool, a human lets have some fun with it,” he called to Jensen. With a leap he was beside the human and started to entangle his long hair.  
“He is an artist.” Jensen explained, untangling the man’s hair.  
“So?” Chad asked.  
“He is sketching Baby and he is doing a good job.”  
“Oh come on just a little …” Chad bent down to untie the man’s shoe lace.  
“Stop it! I mean it,” Jensen growled at Chad.

Meanwhile the human had finished the sketch. He carefully took it out of the book, turned a little bit and started sketching again. This time he sketched a part of the trunk, the roots and Chad’s fern garden. 

“You are right, he is quite talented.” Chad admitted after a little while.   
Jensen sighed. Chad was a puck and as such he loved to play pranks. Jensen had been on the receiving end of more than one.   
Jensen was a tree elb and a warrior, and as such the friendship he had with Chad was quite uncommon but they had fought together for Oberon in the war against Sylar. Chad had risked his life more than once as a spy, sneaking in on Sylar´s headquarters and reporting his findings to Jensen. Jensen had learned to trust Chad but that never had saved him from Chad’s pranks, even when Jensen had been his commanding elb. 

As a tree elb Jensen was proud and strong like his Baby. Everybody had thought after he left the king’s army he would claim a little forest, but he had chosen his Baby and was happy and content with his decision. Oberon had tried to talk to him, tried to convince him to take something larger, something more impressive, something that showed Oberon’s gratitude, but after it became clear Chad would choose the close-by fern garden (“You can’t do anything wrong with a fern”) and Chris and Steve would claim the well and the creek, there was a plan for his most rewarded warriors to stay together, however unlikely their friendship was. 

Thinking of his friends, he saw Chris and Steve stepping out of the creek. Chris was a well elb and as such very down to earth. Steve was a brook elb, and everybody knew that Steve was only content with the little creek because he could be close to his love Chris. 

Sometimes Jensen wondered if they would have become friends if they had not fought together; he Chris and Steve for sure, but one needed a solid reason to stay friends with Chad.  
“What is this man doing here?” Steve asked.  
“Jensen says he is an artist and I’m not allowed to prank him. But he is quite good so I think its okay,” Chad explained.  
“Oh, suddenly the Commander says and you follow? Are you sick?” Chris asked, grinning at Chad.  
“I’m not your Commander anymore. The war is over,” Jensen said.  
Well the truth was the war wasn’t over only the fighting had stopped. 

Chapter 2  
Two weeks had passed and Jared had returned every day to the clearing, painting his tree, the creek, the fern; it was the biggest series he had ever painted. All his paintings where about and around the tree but they all captured something different; he wondered if he had found his lily pond. He had all ways felt safe and at home in the forest but it seemed especially strong in the clearing, even if he felt sometimes like he was being watched. Today Jared planed to finish an oil painting he had started at home; he wanted to capture the light shining through the leaves.   
\---- ----  
“Jensen, your human’s here again,” Chad called.   
“He is not my human. He paints your homes as well,” Jensen replied, slightly annoyed. Ever since he had forbidden Chad to tease the human, Chad had called him Jensen’s human.  
“He touches your tree all the time but never my fern or Chris’s well or Steve’s creek,” Chad complained. Well that was simple: his Baby was a thing of beauty and strength where Chad’s fern was just a fern, and how could you touch a creek? He would just get wet.

But still Jensen couldn’t resist watching the human. Today he had brought some paints and was mixing them to find the right shade of gold. Jensen would never admit it to Chad, Steve or Chris, but since the artist had started to paint his Baby he took special care that his tree looked its finest. He added to the golden leaves a touch of red and changing the coloring as slowly as possible to give the man the chance capture it on canvas. 

Jensen and his friends were lounging on the tree top, resting atop the leaves and looking down at the human.   
“Watch out Jensen, he will see you,” Chris said to Jensen and tried to pull Jensen back but Jensen shook his hand off and kept on watching the artist painting his Baby. His sharp eyesight helped him to see the painting from so far above; it was wonderful, like his other pictures.

Jared was painting as if in trance; never before had he felt so inspired. When he became hungry he unpacked his sandwich and had lunch in the clearing. He took a sip from his water bottle and looked at his painting.   
What was that?  
It looked like Jared had unintentionally painted a face in the tree.   
The beautiful face of a young man with plush lips, big green eyes and long lashes. Jared looked at the tree and then at his painting again. Of course there was no face hidden in there. He shrugged it off and went back to work, but left the face in his painting untouched.  
\---- -----  
The next day Jared had finished his oil painting and started a new one. He wanted to portray the trunk with its roots, branches and the fern in the background but somehow he couldn’t catch the essence of it. Sometimes that happened to him; when he looked at the tree he could feel it, he just wasn’t able to put it on the canvas. Jared glanced around; he had the feeling something, someone was watching him again. But there was nothing; he was alone in the middle of the forest. 

Jensen was furious! Was the painter stupid or blind or both? He had gotten it all wrong on his latest painting. His Baby wouldn’t bend to Chad’s fern and the roots were totally wrong! He was really getting mad at the artist; his tree, his Baby was a thing of beauty, strong and tall. It should be simple to put that on paper. 

He could hear Chad snickering behind him and Chris and Steve joined in with laughter. For water elves they were sometimes quite ridiculous and to join ranks with Chad was close to treason. With justified fury Jensen pushed away the veil that separated the elf kingdom from the human world, and walked up to the artist.  
“Baby wouldn’t bend to Chad’s fern. And… and the roots go so, so and then down!” Jensen said, gesticulating wildly between the picture and his tree.   
\---- ----  
Jared thought he was going to have a heart attack.   
Out of nowhere appeared the most beautiful man he had ever seen. He had dark blond hair and vibrant green eyes; along his nose was a dusting of freckles. He was dressed in pants the same color as the bark of the maple tree and his shirt, or rather tunic, looked like it was woven out of leaves.   
“Jensen, are you out of your mind? We are not supposed to show ourselves to humans!”   
A shorter man with spiky blond hair appeared as though out of the thin air. He was dressed in a green jump suit which looked like it was made out of fern fronds.   
“And what did you just do?” Jensen shot back.  
And it those two weren’t enough, two more men appeared suddenly. They were dressed identically in floor-length tunics the color of the creek.  
“Jensen! Chad! Get a grip; you both are scaring the human!” Said the shorter one with piercing blue eyes.

Meanwhile Jared tried to catch his breath. He knew he was depressive, suicidal on really bad days, but he never considered himself schizophrenic. But now he was hallucinating four men who looked like extras that had stepped out of The Lord of the Rings. Before he could muster a question or even move, his body decided to avoid further stress and he passed out. 

“Great, now he is dead,” Chad said, walking up to the human and poking him with his foot.  
“No, he is not dead. Sometimes that happens when they see us,” Steve commented.   
Jensen looked worriedly at the human.   
“We should be careful. Oberon doesn’t want us to walk among the humans,” Steve continued. “What shall we do?” Jensen asked, addressing all.  
“Don’t tell Oberon.”  
“Make him a little more comfortable.”   
“Check out his food.”

So while Chad checked out what kind of sandwich the artist had hidden in his backpack, Jensen and Steve took care of the human. Jensen sat beneath the tree and had put his head in his lap and brushed his long hair out of his face. He looked sad and had dark rings under his eyes like he didn’t get much sleep. Still, he was very good looking for a human.  
“Hey beauty, open your gorgeous eyes for me,” Jensen whispered in his ear. 

 

Jared was warm and he felt safe; those were the first impressions to penetrate his darkness. There was a beautiful voice talking and he tried to follow that voice. He opened his eyes and looked up into a pair of stunning green eyes.   
“Hi, human. Are you back with us? Sorry that we frightened you. What’s your name?”   
Jared stared in wonder at the beautiful man, not really listening, but he had caught the question.  
“Jared. My name is Jared.”  
“Hi, Jared. My name is Jensen, the one eating your sandwich is Chad, this is Steve and the one over there is Chris.” 

“Did I hit my head?” Jared wondered aloud.  
Jensen looked around for help. He had never talked to a human before, but he remembered that Steve many, many years ago had an affair with a maiden from a small settlement over the hill called Golden Grove, before he had mated with old grumpy Chris.  
“Steve, what is he talking about?” Jensen asked, concerned.  
“He believes we are his imagination or a dream or a hallucination,” Steve explained.   
“What can we do? I want him to know I … I mean… we are real.”  
“Hey dude!” Chad called out to Jared “Are you afraid of us? No? Good, then just enjoy this dream. – See Jensen all set. The perfect midday autumn dream. You can still just slap him in the face.”  
Jensen was a little bit upset. He had wanted Jared to know he was real so he could talk to him like a sentient being. He wanted to talk about his art and the last painting that had caused all this and he couldn’t do that when Jared thought he was dreaming. 

 

If this was a dream Jared didn’t want to wake up. Usually other people frightened him but these three somehow didn’t. Even in their weirdness he felt comfortable around them.   
“You were complaining about my last drawing?” he asked the guy – Jensen – who couldn’t seem to leave his hair alone. Jensen tucked a strand behind Jared’s ear so he could better look into his eyes. They reminded him of something but he couldn’t remember what it was.  
“A tree as majestic as Baby would never bow to Chad’s fern that way! It’s fern!” Jensen explained.

The spent a fantastic afternoon in the clearing; Jensen told Jared about the creek and Steve and the well and Chris. He showed him the nest up high in his tree where he hoped next spring the blue jay would roost again.   
While they talked, Jared sketched quickly. When the sun began to sink he didn’t want to leave his new friends; they all gathered around the drawings and sketches Jared had set out in the grass. He had finished almost 12 sketches and Jensen blessed them as a gift from his new friends. Jared could never describe what or if something changed in his pictures, if something was different it was too subtle for the human eye to see.   
“Will I see you again?” he asked them all, though he looked at Jensen as he spoke.   
“Would you like to?” Jensen asked, and Jared nodded. “Just come back; we’ll be here.”  
“And bring some tuna sandwiches the next time,” Chad said.

 

Chapter 3  
The next morning, Jared he checked to see if he had tuna but couldn’t find any. He needed to go to the grocery but first he wanted to go to the little gallery in Golden Grove and see if he could sell some of his new drawings. With the money from the New York gallery he had paid his landlord, electricity, and the cell phone, but after he had paid his debt, they all had asked for advance payment so Jared needed to sell something.   
The Golden Grove Gallery had never shown interest in buying his pictures before, but after yesterday Jared felt different… more alive. And yes, he still had remembered to take his pills.

Loretta, the lady who owned the Golden Grove Gallery, greeted Jared with a tired smile: “So Jared you want to try again? As I said, I like you but I can’t buy your art out of pity. Your drawings don’t sell…” she broke off. Jared had unpacked his last paintings of the clearing and the tree and spread them out on the large table in the main room of the gallery.   
“Jared are those yours?   
“Yes Ma’am.”   
“You’ve made a quantum leap. Do you have more of these?”  
“No, not right now. I started this series a few days ago. Will you buy something?” I need some groceries, Jared added in his mind.  
“I’ll buy them all. They are gorgeous! Looks like you found your muse and your inspiration. If you have any more of these… we could make an exhibition with them…. I can call some friends in New York … you go back to your apartment and start painting.”

Jared left the gallery in a daze with a big check in his hand. Well now I have at least money to buy some tuna, Jared thought. He made it to his clearing a little later than usual. He had brought a big picnic with homemade sandwiches and some pie. Standing between the creek and the tree he wondered if maybe his imagination had played with him, but then he whispered: “Jensen, Chad, Steve, Chris are you here?” 

Jensen had waited for Jared to come back and when his usual hour had passed without him arriving he had worried about the young artist. Maybe they had been too intense? But then Jared came to his tree and he even had called them by their names. Jensen felt sure that had to mean something.   
Jensen pulled the veil away, walked to Jared, hugged him and kissed him on his cheek.   
“You came back!”  
“Yes, I brought a picnic with some tuna for Chad.”  
“And here I was thinking you came back for me,” Jensen said with glowing eyes.  
Jared blushed and ducked his head under Jensen’s intense stare. Was Jensen flirting with him? He could still feel the tingle where Jensen had kissed him.

\---- ---- 

 

The next few weeks were easily the happiest of Jared’s life. He had found some friends that accepted him like he was. Not once did he feel like he wasn’t good enough, or too stupid or a freak. But most importantly, he had Jensen. 

From the first time they had met Jensen had been flirting with him and been very tactile with Jared. Not that Jared minded and Jared knew if he dared he would fall hard for Jensen. Even outside of the forest life had started to treat Jared well. Loretta had bought everything that Jared had wanted to sell. “It seems like you hit a nerve with your paintings. We can ask almost anything we want and we should really work on the exhibition,” Loretta had told him.

Today was the first that wasn’t bright and sunny, and the forest seemed to be darker than usual. It would be winter soon. As Jared made his way to the clearing he stumbled over roots and some branches seemed to grab at him. So he looked quite beaten when he finally made it into the clearing.   
Jensen was waiting for him.  
“Looks like we’ll be getting some bad weather,” Jared said as a greeting.  
“Yes, it almost does,” Jensen answered. His eyes traveled to the mountains and the moor that lay before them.  
“You look worried, is everything okay? Where are Chad and the others?”  
“Something came up and they went to see what’s happening.”  
“Well that was a concrete answer” Jared said. “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell.”  
“No, that isn’t it; we want to be sure before we tell anyone so…” Jensen trailed off.

After a short pause Jared said: “I would like … if it’s okay with you… I mean the others aren’t here so I thought… if you don’t mind…”  
“I know.” Jensen said with a smile. He didn’t understand Jared’s ramblings but he had a suspicion. So far he had been too anxious to act on it, but now since Jared asked, Jensen stepped into Jared’s space, cradled his face between his hands and kissed him. He licked along Jared’s bottom lip and Jared opened his mouth for him. His tongue explored Jared’s mouth, licking and tasting Jared.   
After a little while he pulled back for air, smiling at Jared “So, is this what you wanted?”  
“No… I mean yes… No I…I wanted to ask you if I could paint you. But I enjoyed your kiss, our kiss.”  
It was Jensen’s turn to blush. Thank god they were alone today; Chad would tease him without end if he learned about this little misunderstanding.   
“Okay,” he said taking off his shirt. “Where should I pose?”  
Jared stared at Jensen’s naked chest, swallowing hard. First the unexpected -- but far from unwelcomed -- kiss and now Jensen was starting to strip. When he reached for his pants, Jared found his voice again. “No! I mean … oh god… Jensen… like this is more than okay. Just lay here under your tree in the golden leaves, and cross your arms behind your head.” And then he began to draw Jensen.

Something like this had never happened to Jared before; never had someone as perfect as Jensen shown interest in him. Jensen had kissed him!   
Jared’s love life so far had been almost nonexistent. His first (and so far only) boyfriend was an abusive asshole and Jared had dumped him after 2 months, a black eye and a badly bruised wrist. And now this perfect man had kissed him. Jared, with his ugly scars and a personality that didn’t worked without his pills to keep his angst at bay. 

He had finished the sketch and now moved to start the painting. Jensen was still lying stretched out, half naked in the golden leaves of his tree.   
“Loretta wants to buy anything I paint or sketch here and she plans an exhibition, so the blessing thing you did really worked,” Jared said in an attempt at small talk. Jensen had seen that nothing had changed in Jared’s pictures; he didn’t know why this Loretta woman had started buying Jared’s art after his blessing but he was glad that Jared was so happy. 

Jensen’s thoughts wandered to his friends. He was worried that they hadn’t returned by now. No one had to remind Jensen of the fact that the war wasn’t over.   
A defeated Sylar had retreated in his dark realm and hadn’t attacked in years, and the only reason why Oberon never invaded his realm was due to the fact that Sylar was the only one who knew what had happened to the prince.   
It was the sad story of Oberon’s kingdom: the only child and heir of the king had been kidnapped a long, long time ago and no search parties through all known kingdoms could find him. Sylar had offered the whereabouts of the young prince in exchange for his hand in marriage and half of Oberon’s kingdom. But Oberon had declined; accusing Sylar himself of stealing the baby. But the baby was never found in Sylar´s realm and Sylar had declared war for the offence of being blamed for the disappearance of the royal prince. 

Last night they had heard strange noises coming from the moor and they decided to go to the border between Oberon’s kingdom and the dark realm and see what was happening.  
But these thoughts didn’t belong here. Jensen was sure that Jared didn’t see a warrior in him and he wanted to keep that part of his life as far away from Jared as he could so maybe someday Jared would see him as a lover. 

Chris, Steve and Chad returned shortly after Jared had left and the sun had started to set. “What have you learned?” Jensen asked them. They lit a St. Elmo’s fire and were sitting around the green flames.   
“Nothing – there was nothing. No guardian to watch the border, no fairy trying to switch the border – nothing. It was like staring into a dead country,” Chris answered.  
“And that took you so long? For news like this you could have been back hours ago.”  
“No – be patient commander,” Steve continued. “We found tunnels and roots under the surface. The realm is growing underneath where you can’t see it right away. You know the big guardian oak tree close to the red rocks? It’s dying because there is poison ivy everywhere. It’s happening quickly. We need to report to Oberon. We think an attack is planned and it will happen before the first snow.”  
Jensen was walking around the fire, listening and making plans.  
“Chad, you go to the king, tell him what you saw. Chris, show me where you found evidence of Sylar´s plans. Steve, if we aren’t back tomorrow, take Jared safely back to his village and then report to Oberon.”   
They extinguished the fire and went off to their appointed tasks.  
\---- ----  
He had cursed him.  
He had put a taint on his soul and dimmed his light. Once he had almost succeeded when the boy had tried to kill himself. The boy lived a depressive life thanks to him. But now he had met Commander Jensen and the other elite soldiers and they had blessed his art, the first crack in his solid dark curse. Of course he was a gifted artist, a soul could only be bent to a certain degree; a part of what it is suppose to be will always shine through.  
He wondered if he should go to the village and remove the blessing, but it would be better if he could make the boy decide to never come back to the clearing.   
The prince was his!  
And then there was the “love” problem; as soon as the boy fell in love it would free his spirit and he would become the creator he always was suppose to be. Sylar had never expected that the boy would meet another elb. Who would have thought that Jensen of all fae would be the one to disobey the direct order from Oberon to not interact with humans?   
Well, it was too late to change what had happened and after what Sylar had seen today it was high time to interfere. Whatever was going on between Jensen and the prince… Jared… must be stopped.  
Chapter 4   
Jared was on his way to the clearing but somehow he kept choosing the wrong path, taking wrong turns and ending up in a thicket where he only could turn around. It almost seemed like the forest didn’t want him to find the clearing and his friends.

He was forced closer to the mountain and the moor. Jared was about to turn around again when suddenly (again out of thin air) an elb appeared. He wore a long black coat, black shirt and pants, his dark hair was brushed back and his dark eyes seemed to glow.   
“Hello Jared. My name is Sylar. I can show you your way.”   
“Why? What is going on?”  
“As you might have guessed, there is something going on in the forest here.”  
“It seems to push or pull me to the moor. Can you take me to the clearing?”  
“I can take you anywhere you want. Just follow me.”   
Jared had an uneasy feeling about Sylar. But then he thought if he had come across Chris alone he would have seemed … dark too. Sylar turned to his left and Jared followed him.  
“Where is Jensen?” Jared asked. He seemed to be getting a migraine; there was a pressure in his skull he had never felt before.  
“Commander Jensen is really busy and you know how tree elb´s are.”   
No, so far Jared had only met one tree elb (Jensen) but some thing had caught his attention: “Commander Jensen?”  
“Yes, in the war he was Oberon’s most reliable weapon.”  
“What war?” Jared asked, his head pounding.

Sylar glanced back, a dark smile playing around his lips: “O you stupid child, what were you guys always talking about? With all the time you spent together one would think that something as important for Jensen and his friends would come up. But maybe they didn’t think you trustworthy. They were laughing behind your back and called you a freak.” 

Jared had trouble keeping up with Sylar, and now all this news about Jensen. Why had he lied to him? The old feeling of betrayal started nagging in his mind. 

They reached a little pond with dark, almost black, water. The trees around the pond looked like dark hands reaching for the sky and as Jared looked closer, there were worms and maggots crawling all over the ground like a wave moving in his direction.  
“Where are we? Where have you brought me?” Jared asked.

 

\---- ----  
Returning to Oberon’s court wasn’t easy for Jensen, but after what they had discovered his king wanted to hear it for himself.   
“You seem different.” Oberon said to Jensen after they had sent out word for the army to gather.   
“Yes, I feel different. I met someone and… it’s still too soon to call it anything but … I miss him.”  
“Who is it? Someone I know?”  
Jensen knew he had to confess that he was seeing a human. He only hoped with the upcoming fight there were more urgent things on Oberon’s mind. “His name is Jared and he came into my clearing a while ago. He is an artist. He made pictures of my tree and he is human.” Jensen came to an end before he started to ramble about Jared’s eyes, his dimples, his moles or everything else that made Jared so special to him.  
“Human? I thought I gave orders not to interact with humans. But since there weren’t any other incidents, this Jared seems able to keep his mouth shot. An artist you say? Someone who can create something new, I would like to meet him someday.” Oberon turned away, smiling to himself. He was happy for his commander to have found someone special and he didn’t care if he was an elb, human or donkey.

With the first light of the new day the army of Oberon moved to the border of the dark realm. It had been years since the last battle but Jensen and every other elb had practiced their combat skills, because they had known this day would come and they would need to be prepared.  
They reached the border at the Dark pond and there on the other side was Sylar -- with Jared.  
\---- ----  
Sylar knew he was risking all, but he didn’t have any alternative.  
Waiting would mean Jared falling more and more for Jensen. He had to try and seduce Jared himself. That way he could still follow the plan he had started when he had kidnapped baby Prince Tristan 23 years ago and placed him with a human family.   
It had been his dark pleasure to watch Jared’s foster mother suffer with the changeling and in return making the little prince suffer a little more under her uncaring behavior. So the curse he put on Jared had only added to his misery, to make sure that Jared stayed unhappy, wouldn’t find friends and wouldn’t fall in love. So he would never discover and have access to his powers.  
“My dear Jared,” Sylar said, stepping into Jared’s space, facing him. “I would like to propose to you. Would you like to leave your loveless life behind, a mother that always hated you, a talent that will never receive the recognition it deserves? Come to me and your dark days will be over. Together we’ll create a new realm out of the ashes of the forest. Join me and together we’ll be unstoppable.”  
\---- ----  
Jensen was shocked.  
There was Jared on the other side of the pond, next to Sylar, who was whispering god knows what lies into his ear.  
“Jared,” he said.   
“Tristan?” Oberon asked right next to him.  
Tristan, like the missing prince? Like the cause of this war?  
Jared was Tristan – Tristan was Jared.   
No, this couldn’t be right. Jared was human; he had looked at his aura the first day he had seen him.  
\---- ----  
Jared was lost in agony.  
His head was killing him and he had trouble following what Sylar was telling him, but he was sure it was something good. His voice was the only good thing in Jared’s cosmos of pain, a voice like honey talking to him, trying to reach, seduce him. – Good -  
One thing though was obvious: Sylar hadn’t brought him to the clearing. But did he still want to go there to Jensen? – Better -  
Jensen had betrayed him, their friendship and was there more than friendship? – Pain –  
Every thought about Jensen only brought more pain. Thinking and listening to Sylar was easy and didn’t cause so much agony.   
He looked up and directly into Jensen’s eyes.   
He was moving his lips, he was saying something. “HE IS LYING. DON’T BELIEVE HIM.”  
Jared shook his head.  
If he could only …. His head seemed to explode… he fell on his knees gasping for breath.   
Oh god, what was happening to him?  
\---- ----  
Jensen only wanted to get to Jared.   
He saw that he was in pain and Sylar was still too close to Jared, talking to him.  
“HE IS LYING. DON’T BELIEVE HIM,” Jensen started to whisper.

Chris stepped up to Jensen. “Will we attack?” he asked.  
Behind Sylar in the shadows of the dying trees he could see his dark army moving, shadows hiding in shadows.   
“HE IS LYING. DON’T BELIEVE HIM. HE IS LYING. DON’T BELIEVE HIM. HE IS LYING. DON’T BELIEVE HIM.”  
“What? Jensen are you…” He followed Jensen’s gaze and discovered Jared. He turned to Chad and Steve, waiting behind him. “He’s got Jared and he is trying to put him under a curse.”  
The three friends joined ranks with Jensen and chanted, “HE IS LYING. DON’T BELIEVE HIM.”  
Jensen didn’t know what kind of dark magic Sylar was using on Jared, but he was pale and swaying on his feet.   
Then he looked up and right into Jensen’s eyes.   
Jared screamed and dropped down on his knees, cradling his head.  
\---- ----  
Someone was screaming and Jared was sure he was dying.  
A head-splitting pain like this could only mean he was dying.  
If only the screaming would stop -- he closed his mouth and the screaming stopped.  
Jensen – he needed to get to Jensen.  
\---- ----  
Jensen watched as Jared writhed in agony on the ground. He had stopped his attempt to counter the curse.   
“We should attack as long as Sylar is busy with Jared,” he said to Oberon. The king nodded his agreement.   
“Chris and Steve, you go together with the green and the yellow unit and move eastward around the lake. Chad and I will move westward around the pond. Chad, your only goal is to sneak up on Sylar and try to whisk Jared away. The other units stay here with the king.”  
Chris and Steve nodded their understanding and moved to the units.

Jensen nodded to Oberon.  
“Sylar! Give up! It is over! You’re outnumbered,” the king called across the little lake.  
“Only when the creator doesn’t choose me,” Sylar called back. “You thought I wouldn’t know that your only child isn’t a preserver but a creator. And if he chooses the dark realm your future will be a shadow.   
Jared what side do you chose? Those who always thought you were a freak and never trusted you enough to tell you the truth? Or us, a new start; you can create our new kingdom and we will rule together.”  
Jared looked up from under his bangs. “No thank you. I’d rather go back to my fern garden.” And then Jared’s form morphed back into Chad’s real form.   
With a roar Sylar attacked the puck, but Chad just made himself invisible, turned around and ran away over the water.  
\---- ----  
Jensen was half carrying, half walking an almost unconscious Jared through the forest. Chad had outdone himself hiding himself and Jensen and then switching places with Jared in less than a blink of an eye. Behind him, Jensen could hear the sound of the battle and the warrior in him wanted to turn around and fight among his friends, but the part of him that … loved … Jared only wanted to make sure Jared was safe.

Soon they reached the border to Oberon’s kingdom and he dropped Jared carefully to the ground when a healer appeared next to them and started checking Jared for injuries. The sound of the battle faded into the background and Oberon kneeled by Jared’s side. Jensen had started to stroke Jared’s hair, like he had done the first day they had met.

“Is he okay?” Oberon asked the healer.  
“There is a taint on his soul, which is the cause of his dimmed aura.”   
“Can the taint be removed?”   
“Not by me,” he answered.  
“Sylar?” Jensen asked, and the healer nodded. Jensen cursed under his breath; because of the on-going battle he didn’t know if Sylar was still alive. If he was dead there was no one who could remove the taint on Jared’s soul.  
\---- ----  
Jared was floating in a universe of darkness.   
He saw his mother pushing him away and locking him in the basement.  
As a child he went to the forest and found peace.  
He saw his friend Mike in 3rd grade telling the teacher he had broken the glass cabinet.  
He went into the forest and found his talent as an artist.

It was like reliving his sad, dark life all over again, but through it all he had always found peace and joy the forest. 

Far away Jared saw a single light; it came closer and there were other smaller lights around it. Jared stayed for a long, long time with the lights but when they started to move Jared followed them. 

And suddenly there were voices talking, but Jared couldn’t understand what they were saying. He could feel the ground under him and the sky above him. He could feel the other people around him and those further away, some of them still fighting. And he could feel himself. 

Suddenly he knew Jensen had been his light in the universe of darkness. He loved Jensen and he wanted to be with him. Jared opened his eyes and looked at the surprised faces of Jensen and two other elb´s he didn’t know. He smiled at Jensen and turned around to face him.  
“I love you my light,” he said, and kissed Jensen with all he had. 

In the moment when their lips touched Jared’s skin started to glow and as Jensen returned and intensified the kiss, suddenly Jared’s inner light exploded and took every kind of taint away. Pulling back slightly Jared said, “Wow, will it always be that way?”  
\---- ----  
The battle was over before it had really begun. Without the creator on their side most of the shadows returned to the darkness that was their home. Only a few chose to fight against the elbs. Sylar was arrested by Chris and laid in chains.  
Today was not the day to decide and judge on Sylar´s future.  
Today was a day to celebrate the return of Prince Tristan and the defeat of Sylar.

 

Chapter 5  
Waking up to a world where he was a prince and elb was strange to say at least.  
But he had Jensen right beside him and somehow this life, this reality made more sense to Jared, like the world had shifted slightly and now everything was right.

There was an awkward discussion with his father on what to call him; for Jared it was clear that his name was Jared but his father insisted on calling him Tristan, though the king ended up being the only one to do so.

The ominous creator part was easy.  
As a painter he was use to creating something new, something beautiful. And who would have thought that the talent that made him an outcast in the human world was scarce and seldom seen among elves. As Jensen had explained, most of them were meant to preserve and take care of their part of the nature, but Jared was able to make a new well flow, a new plant grow and call new animals to life in their forest. For Jared it was like painting on nature’s own canvas. 

But still, he felt like Alice on vacation, not really belonging to the realm, but not at home among the humans either. The season had changed and living among the elb gave Jared a new point of view on time. 

So it was a day in late spring or early summer that found Jared and Jensen lying naked in the sun after they had made love for the better part of the sunny afternoon.  
“What’s wrong?” Jensen asked. Jared had learned early on that Jensen could read his moods like an open book, so he answered as truthfully as he could. “I miss my old life. I miss tuna sandwiches, Dr. Who, Loretta from the gallery and my work. I feel like I’m betraying my old life.”  
“You can go back. There is no rule that states you have to stay all the time in the forest; this is your home, not your prison. If you’d like, I can go with you and you can show me that part of your life.” 

So some days later Jared let them into his old apartment. He was a little surprised that he still had an apartment but then he remembered that his landlord had insisted on an advance payment.   
There was a lot of mail but after he checked for junk mail only a few pieces remained. One of them was a letter printed on expensive paper, sent from Loretta. It was an invitation to his art exhibition; from the note it was clear that she somehow had managed to get access to all of Jared’s pictures. Not that he minded, he had promised her them anyhow. Jared looked at the date and then asked Jensen, “Would you like to see my first exhibition?”  
\---- ----  
Jared couldn’t take his eyes off Jensen. He had known he was good looking, but dressed up like this in a dark suit he looked not from this world (not that he was anyhow).  
They were a little late and Jared was nervous about the show. He took a deep breath and gripped Jensen’s hand a little bit tighter as they entered the gallery. 

The gallery was packed. There were so many people Jared couldn’t believe it, but the atmosphere was nice and relaxed. He spotted Loretta in the crowd and they made their way over to her.  
“Jared? Thank god you’re still alive. It would have been too tragic if a talent like yours was lost to us. And you brought a date? Hi my name is Loretta, who are you?”  
“I’m Jensen.”  
“Oh you must be his muse! I recognize you now from the paintings and I must say as great as the paintings are they don’t do you justice. I’m so glad, I was right about you. Your mother wanted to convince a judge you were dead, but I told her you had just found your inspiration and were busy painting. So what do you think about your first exhibition? If the first impression is anything to go by we’ll be sold out by the end of the night. Maybe we should think about an exclusive gallery thing, I would sell only your art. Think about it, you could go into your forest and paint and I’ll do all the stuff you obvious don’t care about. Oh! There is a reporter! Come on, photo time.”  
“And there I was thinking I would talk too much.” Jensen whispered, smiling into Jared’s ear; somehow you had to like Loretta.  
As the three were standing in front of the painting with Jensen half naked on a bed of golden leaves the photographers were taking pictures and shouting questions.  
“Jared, who is your date?”  
“Where have you been all these months?”  
“Is it true that MOMA called?”  
“This is Jensen, he is my light and I was with him the whole time. We’ll go back to our fairy kingdom but I’ll stay in contact with Loretta here. So please address all your questions to her. This is probably the first and last interview I will ever give.” Jared sent a blinding smile to the photographers who went wild, then he turned and kissed Jensen right in front of everybody. “I’ll call you,” he whispered into Loretta’s ear, then he turned to Jensen and said, “Let’s go home.” And he didn’t mean his apartment.

He thought of a beautiful clearing with a tree called Baby, a fern garden close by and a well and a creek, and he thought of Chad and Steve and Chris. But above all he thought of Jensen, the man at his side, the light in his life, the love of his life.

End


End file.
